The project is designed primarily to develop fundamental knowledge relevant to an understanding of several key functions of cells in general and of the acinar cells of the pancreas in particular. These functions include synthesis, translocation and secretion of proteins, and the transformation by enzyme-catalyzed reactions of metabolites into those products required for maintenance and growth. Such functions are being illuminated by research on the structure and function of glycoproteins and glycoprotein enzymes of the secretory granules and their membranes in the acinar pancreas and by studies of the relation between structure, specificity and function in the enzymes carboxypeptidase A, carboxypeptidase B and elastase, as also of their respective zymogen precursors.